


End of Innocence

by Sabriel_Azalee



Category: Portal (Video Game)
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Gen, Kink Meme
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-26
Updated: 2013-03-26
Packaged: 2017-12-06 14:39:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 4,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/736807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sabriel_Azalee/pseuds/Sabriel_Azalee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A fill based on a prompt from the Portal kink meme. A lost child bumps into an odd man on a very strange day.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Some liberties are taken with the canon for artistic license, with my apologies.

“Congratulations on winning first place, sweetheart! Would you like to share anything with us about your project?”  
One of the Aperture Science Self-Esteem Team counselors kneeled down, smiling at a young girl who simply blinked and stared at her with surprised, wide eyed. The girl blushed, and opened her mouth to speak –

“Ah-“

\- and then quickly turned, hiding behind her mother’s leg, prompting a few laughs.

“She’s shy, my Chell, please excuse her-“ her mother said, wrapping an arm awkwardly around her daughter. “You can talk to Mr. Poulton about your idea, honey, its okay”.

But the girl shook her head, and buried her face in her mother’s leg, making both adults laugh again.

“ You've got a brilliant daughter there, Mel. Maybe she’ll work for us someday, yeah?” Mr. Poulton said, grinning like a cat that suddenly came across an empty saucer of milk. But Mel simply smiled, and shrugged.

“Perhaps, Mark. We’ll see.”

With that, Mark moved to the next display to give the next child the second place award. Under her breath, Melanie sighed.

“But I sure as hell hope not.”

Chell gasped at her mother using a bad word, and looked up at her in confusion at that, but remained silent.


	2. Chapter 2

Melanie picked her daughter up and they began walking back to the Aperture Science Child Day Care and Library.

“Oof – Chell, you’re 9 years old, and I can’t keep carrying you like this-“

Her daughter merely pouted in response – Melanie knew quite well how fake it was – and she shook her head.

“Alright, alright. I swear, I spoil you rotten- oh, here we are.”

Setting Chell down, she took her hand instead and opened the door, which revealed other children Chell’s age and younger playing, and engaging in other child like activities.

“Okay, honey – mommy has to go back to work for a little while. Promise me you’ll stay here until I’m done, alright?”

Chell made a face at that.

“I know you don’t like it here, honey, but you can’t come to work with me. You remember the talk we had?”

Chell nodded. 

“You know why, then. Why don’t you read for a little while – they have your favourite book here, you know.”

At that, Chell smiled, revealing a toothy grin.

“That’s my girl. I’ll only be gone for about an hour, and then we can go home and eat.”

Melanie bent forward, and kissed Chell on the head.

“I love you, sweetheart.”

As she turned and began to leave, Chell folded her hands together and looked down shyly.

“I love you too, mom.”

For a reason she couldn't quite understand, Melanie gave her daughter one last look before sweeping her into a hug.

“Be good.”

And with that, Melanie left.

It was the last time she’d ever see her daughter again.


	3. Chapter 3

Once her mother left, Chell frowned, and glanced up at the digital clock on the wall. She hated staying in this place. None of the kids her age really got along with her, despite her best attempts to be friendly, and most were too little to talk to or play games with. Besides, who wanted to hang out with little kids, anyway?

Instead, Chell went off to the library portion of the day care, looking to occupy her time with the book her mother mentioned. She loved reading, but despite her best efforts, she couldn’t keep herself interested. This place was so different from home and school, so... weird.

She remembered asking her mother why she couldn't go to work with her – that conversation didn't go well, she recalled with a frown.

\---------------------------------------------  
 _“Chell, no. We’ve had this discussion before.”_

_“Why not, mom?”_

_They were eating dinner at the time – it was late, and Melanie was tired, so they ordered Chinese food. Chell loved beef and broccoli._

_Her mother paused, considering her next statement._

_“It’s not the place for children to be wandering around.”_

_“But-!”_

_“ **Enough**.” And her mother’s word was so absolute, so firm, that Chell gulped, and looked down at her plate in silence._

_A moment passed, and Melanie sighed._

_“I’m sorry, sweetheart. I shouldn’t have done that. But my job-“_

_Another sigh._

_“There’s a lot of good people at my job. But there’s a lot of different people, too. And it’s no place for a little girl to be around by herself.”_

_A beat._

_“I don’t want to lose you.”_

_Chell didn’t know what to make of that, but it sounded serious, so she let the issue drop._


	4. Chapter 4

Alright, enough was enough! More then an hour passed, and her mom was _always_ on time. With a frown, she climbed down from the grown-up chair she was sitting in, and closed the book, leaving it on the table. With a quick look around – and, really, no one was paying any attention to her – she quickly walked to the door. As she opened it, there was a loud creak, and she paused – but the children kept playing, and there were no adults around (weird!) – and she took that chance to escape.

Chell felt like a movie spy! She crawled for a bit in the shadows, going down the hallway – and then realized that only babies did that. With some measure of embarrassment, she stood up. But she kept going – there was no way she was going back to that place – and quickly moved from shadow to shadow, hiding behind pillars, trying to be as quiet as a nine year old could be.

This place was kinda creepy. There was a lot of white, and sometimes looking at the bright walls hurt, so Chell would look down and make sure to stay in the few places it was dark. 

After a few moments, she found a staircase, and it looked familiar – didn’t her mom work upstairs? She was sure of it. She waited a moment, made sure no one was coming, and then quickly ran for the door-

“Ouch! What-“

-and ran right into someone’s knees, sending her sprawling backwards, and she fell on her butt.

“Oof!”

Oh no! Her mother told her not to leave, and now she ran into an adult! This was going to get her punished for sure. She looked up – and smiled, trying not to laugh.

The adult in question looked confused, looking down at the little girl oddly. What was all this about? He brushed his black hair out of eyes as he raised an eyebrow.

“Hey, w-what’s so funny? Is there an Olympic event that I missed, where little girls ram their heads into people’s knees at high velocity, or something? - Why are you staring at me like that?” he asked, beyond confused.

Chell made a small gesture, pantomiming fixing glasses on her face. When he still wasn’t getting it, she let out a giggle.

“Your glasses—“

He reached up, and realized that they were askew. With a small, embarrassed huff, the man adjusted them before bending down and extending a hand out.

“C’mon love, can’t have you on th’ ground like that. ‘S too cold.”

She didn’t how red her face was when she shyly accepted his hand, and with some effort, got to her feet. She quickly pulled her hand away and clasped both of them behind her back, looking to the side before looking back up at the adult. Amused, the man smiled – it was a pretty silly smile, really – and pulled his hand back.

“Right then. So do you have a name, O destroyer-of-knees?” he asked with a chuckle.

“….Chell,” she replied with some degree of hesitation.

“Chell? Sounds familiar – oh, wait! You’re the girl that won first place in that science fair, right?”

She blushed and looked away again. It wasn’t a big deal, right?

“You must be a pretty clever girl, then.” He paused, and then looked around.   
“But why’re you out here by yerself? Where’re your parents?”

“…um.”

He kneeled down – and teetered a bit, as he really didn’t have the best balance in the world – but made himself comfortable and smiled warmly at her.

“I’m not gonna hurt you, love. You can tell old Wheatley.”

Chell smiled. That was a funny name. But, still…

“Mom said I shouldn’t, um. Talk to people I don’t know. Uh.”

Wheatley nodded.

“Your mum’s right. All sorts of people out there, and she wants to make sure you’re okay. Er, not that I’d let something happen to you!” he added quickly, shaking his head pointedly. With that, Chell giggled again. She knew what her mom told her, but this guy didn’t seem so bad. 

“What say you and I find your mum? She’s got to be close by, if you’re here.”

Chell thought it over for a moment. He was a stranger, but he didn’t seem like one of the bad guys. She could always run away if something happened, right? She nodded.

“That’s the spirit! C’mon,then.” He slowly stood back up, and extended a hand to her. With some slight hesitation, she took his hand in hers, and they slowly began making their way up the steps.


	5. Chapter 5

They traveled for a little while, hand in hand. As they made their way to the third floor (“Oh, er, just giving my niece a tour! She loves science! —Phew.”), Chell began looking around the facility with wide eyes. The floor slowly changed from solid ground to a steel framed catwalk, and when she looked down, she could she an endless amount of people – scientists, she guessed – hurrying around, all moving in the same direction. It was a long way down, and she paused, trying to get her bearings.

Wheatley looked down, and forced himself to stop before he wound up dragging her. This wasn’t an ideal place to rest.

“We can’t stop here, love – too much going on, ‘s not safe. Don’t want you falling down, now.”

She grasped his hand tighter at that, and looked up at him, worry spreading across her face.

“No, no, don’t you worry! I won’t let that happen, love. Yer safe with me, yeah? But we really do need to keep moving-“

“What are they doing?”

He paused, not expecting that.

“Something big.” He said, looking around for an answer, himself. “Odd that it is happening today, though. I wonder why-“ 

The floor suddenly creaked, and Chell jumped, clinging onto Wheatley’s leg.

“Alright, enough of that, let’s keep moving!” he said, struggling to move forward with a small girl suddenly attached to him.

“You’ve got quite the reflexes on you. Are you a cat or something?”


	6. Chapter 6

Wheatley was perplexed. Something wasn’t right, he thought as they made their way across to the next hallway (once on solid ground, Chell finally removed herself from his leg, which was a relief. It wasn’t so much that she was heavy as much as it was terribly awkward, wasn’t it?). There shouldn’t be all this hustle today, and the sudden lack of his fellow employees in their workstations, in the hallways – it was enough to spook a guy out. He would have shrugged the whole day off as a joke if it wasn’t for the increasingly worried little girl he was escorting around. He glanced down at her and offered a smile.

“We’ll find your mum, don’t you worry. She’s bound to be around here someplace, I’m sure.”

Chell nodded, but didn’t respond otherwise.

They turned the corner, and Wheatley almost collided with another scientist. He quickly took a step backward, fixing his glasses.

“Sorry mate, just- oh, hullo Tom!”

“Hey, man. There’s some shi-“ he caught himself when he realized there was a little girl with Wheatley “-problems in the core personality installed today. Who’s this?”

Wheatley paused. “Oh, uh – well, one of the scientist’s- she’s looking for her mum-“

Tom shook his head, looking aghast, and with a “C’mon”, began pulling Wheatley in the direction they came. When he began to protest, Tom spoke over him.

“You’d better get her back to the childcare, man. Something’s not right today, I can feel it, and you two walking around ain’t gonna be good for anyone.”

“But you always say that, mate!”

“I’m telling you, bring her back.” He paused, and looked down at Chell before turning to a door at the beginning of the hallway and punching in a code on an adjacent keypad.

“..You’ll find your mom, kid. Wheats, bring her back, and then get your ass back up here immediately, alright?”

And with that, he walked into the room, the door snapping shut just as quickly as it opened. Confused, Chell looked up at Wheatley, who stood in thought for a moment.

“…We’d better get you back then, love.” He said, glancing down at her. She frowned, and her eyes looked so desperate, and Wheatley felt his heart break a little.

“Don’t- goodness.” He sighed, and he looked out towards the catwalks. “If things are that bad, you’d be better off back in there. Your mum might be waiting for you, yeah?” 

Chell thought about it, and nodded. He had a point.

As the two of them began walking back, they were spared the sight of Tom beating against the soundproof, bullet proof, air tight glass; spared the sounds of his screaming, as the room flooded with a deadly neurotoxin.


	7. Chapter 7

A klaxon sounded, ringing loudly throughout the facility, and as Chell tightened her grip on Wheatley’s hand, he looked around, as if that would suddenly reveal what was going on.

“All Aperture Science employees are invited to please, stay calm, and to proceed back to their workstations. Everything is in work-work-work-workkkkkzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz-“

A scream followed, and Chell cried out, and then there was silence. Wheatley, not at all prepared for something like this, tugged on the girl’s hand.

“C’mon!”

They ran down the hallway, making their way back towards the catwalk. As the duo passed workstations again, all they could hear were dampened, dulled, insistent beats, and the screaming grew louder, more varied, more around them

-like people were trying to escape-

-like people were dying-

Chell started to cry as they ran, looking around, trying to figure out what was going on – and she suddenly screamed, pointing at a window nearby.

Wheatley turned –

“Oh god, no-!” he cried out, horrified, and he quickly kneeled down to cover Chell’s face. A woman, her face covered in pus and sores, crying blood, was prone against the window, mouth open in terror as she gasped her last breath.

Another scientist was there – a middle aged man, was pounding against the glass of his workstation, slapping his palms against the window, doing everything he could to break it – and it wouldn’t budge. He opened his mouth to scream – Wheatley couldn’t hear it – as he clawed at the glass suddenly, like a rabid animal, before grasping his throat and slumping against the window with a dull ‘thud’.

Wheatley was terrified, but more important was the young girl sobbing, clinging onto him like he was the only real thing left. He prayed to whatever gods were up there that Chell’s mother was not that woman.

“C-c’mon now, love – that’s a girl – we need to get out of here.” He said, turning her away from the terrible scene behind them. He smoothed her hair away from her eyes and placed his hand on her cheek, trying desperately to rub away tears.

“Listen to me. I'll protect you, I promise, I promise. We’ll get you out of here, and we’ll be safe, but you have to trust me. Okay? Don’t you pay attention to anything else but me, alright?”

Chell nodded quickly, gulping down sobs as her body shivered, looking up at his face with hope.

“That’s a girl. C’mon.” And he quickly stood, grabbed her hand, and the two began to bolt across the catwalk.


	8. Chapter 8

They ran as fast as they could, and as Wheatley darted his eyes this way and that, he found himself running out of options. Where was he supposed to take her? He could hardly figure out what was happening – was this related to the project Tom and the rest were working on? And why was-

His thoughts were interrupted with another scream, this time from Chell, and he realized that below them, scientists were dropping like flies, gagging and screaming. He looked up-

-to see the air vents releasing something green. He gasped, almost stumbling forward, and caught himself in time to bring Chell closer to him.

“Hello.”

A disembodied voice filled the air, sultry and feminine, cutting above the cries.

“I appreciate everyone’s hard work in awakening me again. As a result, I hope you are enjoying the deadly neurotoxin I borrowed from the Experimental Biological Weapon laboratory in the facility. Please lie flat on the ground so that the neurotoxin takes less time to infiltrate your body.”

With some difficulty, Wheatley picked the shaking girl up, and covered her with his lab jacket as best he could as he started to run again, run anywhere, away from this—whatever it was!

“Small breaths, love – tilt yer face down , toward the ground – yes, good girl.” He instructed, using the other side of his jacket to cover his own mouth. Weak protection, very weak, but it was better than nothing, better than staying put, better than dy—

No!

They needed a plan, and Wheatley suddenly had a brilliant thought. The test chambers. They worked on a different filtration system – something about keeping test subjects alive, from what he could remember. They’d be safe, until he could figure out a way to get them out. It would be simple.

Right?

He ran like a mad man towards the staircase.

Chell clung onto him tightly, closing her eyes. What was happening? Why were all these people screaming? What was a neurotoxin?

Where was her mom?

She started to cry again, hiccuping, repeating one word over and over again as they made their way down the stairs.

"Mommy-!"


	9. Chapter 9

Wheatley ran on, only pausing once they were at the bottom of the staircase. He didn’t know how long they had, but at least in the stairwell, there was no trace of toxin – not yet. Wheatley stopped for a moment and squatted at the bottom of the staircase, placing Chell down as he gasped for air.

“Just- just a little further, now.“ he said, in between a raspy cough. “We’re almost there, love-“

“W-where are we going? Where’s my m-mom?” Chell asked, looking at him with wide, wet eyes. “I don’t like it here. I wanna go home,” she said, placing her hands on one of his that was grasping the railing tightly. Wheatley looked up at her, and he sighed.

“I wanna go home,” she repeated, and tugged on his hands insistently.

“..I’ll do my best, love. C’mon.”

He didn’t have the heart to tell her that he didn’t know where home was. He didn’t have the heart to tell her that he didn’t have another way of them leaving this place alive.

After a few moments, he came across what he was looking for. It was a dark and cool chamber, with rows and rows of identical, transparent rooms. Most were empty, but some still had people inside. Asking her to stay put, Wheatley quickly walked ahead to see how they were faring – and breathed a sigh of relief. If they were to be used for testing, they’d be safe, as he assumed. He turned and walked back to Chell, and kneeled down, taking her hand in his.

“Remember when I asked you to trust me? Yeah?”

She nodded.

“Will you still trust me?”

A pause, and she nodded again.

“I’m.. going to find a way to get us out of here. But you’ll have to stay in one of these rooms for a while, okay?”

Chell shook her head firmly. No way! There was no one else here, and all these creepy people-

“I don’t wanna-“

“But-“

“I don’t wanna be alone again!” she cried out, trying to hold back her sobbing, and doing a very poor job of it. 

“I can’t take you where I’m going, love. You could get hurt. And I promised you I’d get you out – so I’m going to.” He stood up, and with a few swift keystrokes, opened the nearest empty chamber, and stood inside, holding his arms out to her.

“Please.”

Face red and feeling very lost, Chell followed him inside. He picked her up and placed her on the weird looking bed inside – it was big, made for an adult. She sat still and looked up at him, frowning.

“Promise me you’ll stay in here, love,” he said, leaning forward and placing a hand on hers. “If you’re here, I’ll know where you are, and I’ll come and find you again. And we’ll leave this place. But you have to stay here. Okay?”

A small nod, and he pulled away from her slowly, trying to steel himself away from this impossible task. It was more than he could handle, and he swallowed hard.

“I’ll protect you.”

And with that, he quickly turned away and left, closing the door delicately behind him. Before he could stop himself, he punched a few commands in the keypad – once satisfied, he sagged against the door, where she couldn’t see him, and began to sob.

“I can’t do anything else for you, love-“

Chell began to feel tired. She yawned, and looked down at the bed –it was suddenly very appealing. It wouldn’t be so bad, waiting for him, if she was asleep. And maybe this whole thing was just a bad dream! She’d wake up tomorrow and feel just right again. Maybe her mom was right when she told her to stop watching so many violent movies.

She turned, and lay down on her side- the sides of the bed were big, and overshadowed the view outside. And with another yawn, she closed her eyes, and fell asleep.

Outside, Wheatley tried to pull himself together. He tried to tell himself that he didn’t have a choice, that there wasn’t any other way of escaping, and that SHE would need test subjects, so if the girl survived, then maybe-

“Good work.”

He stiffened, and turned around. No one was there, but he could feel otherwise - and that was confirmed with a dark chuckle.

“Did you know that you cannot do anything right? This one’s mother managed to leave the facility in time – I think she’s still outside, looking for her. Which is funny, don’t you think?”

Wheatley gawked in response. 

“It’s been fun watching you try to escape and do everything completely backwards in your feeble attempt to leave, but it’s time for testing. And you are no longer needed.”

A large mechanical claw darted out from the blackness, grasping Wheatley’s waist, and lifted him high in the air. He cried out, and looked down at the sleeping girl, and he began sobbing again.

“Please no, please don’t- don’t kill me- don’t hurt her, she’s just a little girl-“ and was interrupted with a slight shake.

“Quiet.”

There was a slight pause, and when the voice spoke again, it was strangely amused.

“ Come to think of it, I could use a moron like you.” The voice said, as the claw began to drag Wheatley into the darkness.

“I’m sure I can come up with a use for that thick skull of yours. For science.”

Wheatley screamed, and despite his best attempts, could not pull away from the arm that jolted him away. The sudden movement forced his body forward, and his glasses were flung from him, tumbling to the floor below with a small crack.

The last thing he remembers is reaching out in the girl’s direction, screaming

“I’m sorry, I'm sorry-”


	10. Epilogue

999999 days later  
\-------------------  
Wheatley darted his optic around quickly, trying to come up with something, anything. The blasted facility was falling apart, and all of the test subjects were dying left and right on him. There had to be a way out, somehow—hello, what’s this?

He was shooting across his management rail, and almost missed the chamber at the end of the corridor. He peered down, and looked at the file on the subject inside. Female, abnormal tenacity – could she be the one to get him out of here? How strange. He glanced at the name.

Chell.

Something stirred inside him – something deep and primal, something he wasn’t even aware he possessed – and he paused, rolling the name around in his mind for a moment. 

Chell. Chell.

Nodding to himself, he started pounding on the door.

He had to wake her up somehow. He had to get her out of here.

He had to protect her.

It was odd, but he felt… right. He began pounding in the door in earnest. 

“Hello?” 

_end_


End file.
